Jennifer Cicchini
MSET 593/Kingsley
Media Log #4

E-Trade Commercial Superbowl 2008

Description:
The advertisement starts with a baby in a high chair talking about how he doesn’t want to micromanage your account but makes it clear that his savings account earned 8 times the national average. There is no music in this commercial until the end. There is a clown in the background who is blowing up long skinny balloons and trying to make a balloon character. As the baby is talking one of the balloons deflates and makes a squeaking noise and the baby looks a little annoyed and stops talking until the balloon is quiet. Then the baby goes on to say that he and the boys were talking about what to do with all the extra coin and that he decided to rent a clown and then turn toward the clown and points to him. The baby introduces him as Bobo. Then the baby gets an unsure look on his face and indicates that the clown idea was “creepy”. The commercial immediately goes to upbeat music and an announcer that again says that you can earn 8 times the national average by getting a savings account with E-Trade and that they open 1000 new accounts a day.

Meaning:
The E-Trade commercials were great. Who wouldn’t trust a baby? They are funny because the baby talks with an adult voice and the camera is always a head shot of the baby with something else happening in the background or with the baby. The baby typically says things that would come out of an adults mouth, but not a child’s. The baby chosen for this particular commercial is white with big brown eyes. The voice used for the baby is calm, and even when the clown is annoying him, his voice stays calm, but you can hear him sigh while he’s waiting for quiet. The music at the end is quite upbeat and the words say, “Let’s go, let’s go, c’mon, c’mon, let’s go!”

Judgment:
As said before this commercial is good because people watching it think the baby is funny and cute, and because of this, trust the baby. Many E-Trade commercials were made using the babies, so they must have been effective for the company. Some of the comments found on YouTube after viewing the commercial referred to the creepiness of clowns. People must be able to identify with clown creepiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqnitjqpuM